Eggnog

What a perfect season for eggnog! Whether you make it for your Christmas party, or a romantic evening next to the fireplace. Or just because you simply want to treat yourself to something tasty and delicious, or even for a family get-together; of course, don't add the rum or any alcohol if kids are going to taste it.

It is a very easy recipe to make and it will delight adults and children during this holiday season.

To make about 4 cups of eggnog, you will need:

• 4 eggs
• 1/3 cup of sugar
• 1 pint of milk
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 9 ounces of spiced rum*
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon of sugar

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Resting time: A few hours in the fridge until serving


Start by separating the egg whites from the egg yolks and put them in two separate bowls.

Grate the nutmeg and keep aside.

In a bowl, mix the milk and the heavy cream.

In a standing mixer, or with a hand-mixer, whisk the egg yolks until they get lighter in color.

Once it's done, gradually add the 1/3 cup of sugar and continue to whisk until the two ingredients are combined.

While continuing to whisk on a slow setting, add the milk/cream mixture, the rum*, and the nutmeg to the mix.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks. Then add the tablespoon of sugar and continue to whisk until the egg whites form stiff peaks.

Gently whisk the egg-yolk mixture to the egg-white mixture.

You've just made eggnog!

Keep the eggnog in a sealed container in the fridge until serving. Simply re-froth before serving.

Enjoy!

*Note: You can make this recipe alcohol-free by not adding the rum. The recipe steps stay the same; simply remove the rum from the ingredients.

Tip: Keep the leftovers of the eggnog in a sealed container in the fridge. Simply re-froth before serving.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Charline Leblond

Almond and Chocolate Truffles

What a perfect treat to enjoy after your dinner!
These delicious bite-sized almond and chocolate truffles can be served as a snack, or after dinner with some coffee or tea, or even a glass of sweet wine, such as Porto. It would also be a hit for your Christmas dinner.

The following quantities are for about 72 truffles (about 1.5 centimeter diameter), so feel free to adjust them if you are baking for more or fewer people.

You will need:

• 185 grams of ladyfingers biscuits
• 185 grams of almond powder
• 110 grams of sugar
• 3 tablespoon of chocolate powder or shredded chocolate
• 5 tablespoons of milk
• 2 tablespoons of brown spiced rum
• 25 grams of bitter dark chocolate powder

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Resting time: At least 2 hours in the fridge (you can leave them longer if you want to prepare them beforehand)

Start by crushing the ladyfingers biscuits.

You can do so in a bowl.

Or in a plastic sealed bag with a rolling pin.

Or directly in a bowl with a rolling pin.

You should obtain a fine powder as shown below.

Add the almond powder, the sugar, and the 3 tablespoons of chocolate powder to the crushed ladyfingers, and mix.

Warm up the milk.

Make a well in your dry mix, and add the warmed milk and the rum to the preparation.

Then, mix until you obtain a moist, compact batter.

Spread your bitter dark chocolate on a plate.

Take a chunk of the batter and roll it between your palms to form a small bite-sized ball. Repeat the process with all of the batter.

Then, roll the small balls onto the bitter dark chocolate powder. Shake them to get rid of the chocolate powder excess.

Place them on a sheet of parchment paper on a tray, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

Enjoy!

Note: You can keep these individual bite-sized almond and chocolate truffles for a few days as long as they are in a properly sealed container.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Charline Leblond

Sun-dried Tomato and Chorizo Cookies

I made empenadas one day (recipe coming soon) and thought to myself that the dough would work well for some savoury appetizer cookies. These can be a refreshing change from chips and peanuts when you have some people over for drinks, and it is rare enough that most people will be impressed by the effort. Go on, admit it. When you read "Sun-dried tomatoes and chorizo COOKIES" you went "Whaaa?!"

For the first attempt, I decided to go with sun-dried tomatoes and chorizo, because that is what I had in the fridge. Naturally, you can experiment with variations, and I am definitely going to be doing these more often with other ingredients. Mmmm ... bacon anyone?

This recipe will yield about 25-30 cookies, depending on how big you make them.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 125 grams butter
• 1/2 cup of grated parmesan
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons water
• 6-7 sun-dried tomatoes*
• About 1 cup of chopped dry chorizo*

Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

The amount of sun-dried tomatoes and chorizo is really variable, depending how strong you want your cookie. For my chorizo, I was using cured dried chorizo, so it did not have to be cooked. If  you need to cook your chorizo first, make sure you let the chorizo sit on some paper towels to absorb all that oil, you want you chorizo to be as dry as possible. 

Start by cutting up your chorizo into small pieces. Chorizo is notoriously difficult to get into small pieces due to its oils, at least get them into chocolate-chip-sized bits. Set them aside for later.

Next, chop up your sun-dried tomatoes. Again, there is so much oil (unless you have fresh sun-dried tomatoes) that you really want to drain them first. Again, set them aside while we start the dough.

The dough is really simple. Unlike pastry dough and pizza dough, we do not need to work this too much (yay!). If you are like me and working with dough scares you, rest assured that this is the easiest dough to make.

In a large bowl, mix your flour, salt and parmesan.

Add your butter, cut into small cubes, the egg, and the 3 tablespoons of water to the flour/salt/parmesan mixture.

Work the dough with your hands, mixing it all up until it gets ... well, dough-y.

Now add the sun-dried tomatoes and chorizo. I didn't add them earlier because I wanted the butter, flour, egg and water to mix well by themselves first. This way, if anything was a bit off, I could see it and correct the problem without the oils of the sun-dried tomatoes and chorizo confusing me.

Its time to get your hands dirty. Put away the spatula and with both your hands, work the sun-dried tomatoes and chorizo into the dough. Really get them in there, fold the dough over the filling and press it in, then fold it over again and continue. There will be pieces that fall out of the ball, just pick them up and work them back in. Be merciless. They are your prisoners, don't let anyone escape.

The oils will also seep into the dough and spread the flavours around, and you should end up with a ball of dough that looks like this:

Place it in a bowl, cover it with film and let it rest in the fridge for 30 mins. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 210 degrees Celsius (410 Fahrenheit).

After 30 mins are up, take your dough out of the fridge and roll it into small balls, then flatten and place on a cookie sheet.

After I was done with this recipe, I felt I should have made my cookies even thinner, otherwise they feel quite heavy. This is how thick I made mine ... so go thinner than this:

Finally, bake them in the oven for about 15 mins, or until they are nicely browned.

Et, voila! Serve to impress ...

*Tip: Don't throw away your unused sun-dried tomatoes or chorizo, refer to our "Let's not waste anything!" page, and check out few ideas on how to use them.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki